/**************************************************************************
 *
 * Copyright (C) 2007 University of California, Los Angeles.
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
 * (at your option) any later version.
 *
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
 * Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
 *
 *************************************************************************/

/**
 * 
 */
package edu.ucla.cs.typecast.rmi;

import java.io.Serializable;

/**
 * Future is a class represents the result of an asynchronous type-based RPC invocation. 
 * Future may contain zero or many objects. 
 * 
 * @date Sep 17, 2007
 */
public interface Future<V> extends Serializable {
	/**
	 * 
	 *Freeze the Future set, there will be no new objects added into the Future. 
	 */
	public void freeze();
	
	/**
	 * Freeze the Future set when either the count is reached or the timeout. 
	 * @param timeout
	 * @param count
	 */
	public void freeze(long timeout, int count); 
	
	/**
	 * Get the number of objects in the Future set. 
	 * @return
	 */
	public int getCounts(); 
	/**
	 * Return the object indexed by a number. 
	 * @param index
	 * @return
	 */
	public V get(int index); 
	
	/**
	 * Add a listener 
	 * @param listener
	 */
	public void addFutureListener(FutureListener<V> listener); 

}
